GOP Homophobia was on display at hearing on DADT repeal implementation

As we mentioned earlier this week, the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Military Personnel was holding its first hearing on DADT repeal today. It was supposed to be about the implementation process. But, these GOPers can’t help themselves. Their homophobia was on full display. And, they wanted another debate over whether DADT should be repealed.

Keep in mind that 80% of the American people support repeal. But, you wouldn’t know that from the way the Republicans today. It was pretty clear these GOPers still don’t want repeal to happen. At this point, any opposition to DADT repeal is based on bigotry.

SLDN blasted the hearing:

“Today’s hearing represents a shameless and transparent attempt by a few repeal opponents to delay, defund, and derail the timely certification and full repeal of the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law.

“Mr. Wilson knows better. There was nothing undemocratic about last year’s vote to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ The measure passed both houses of Congress on a strong bi-partisan vote.

Alex Nicholson took a swipe at the hearing organizers, but sees progress:

“Despite the transparent intentions behind the scheduling of today’s oversight hearing on the progress toward ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal, the hearing went very well and revealed smooth sailing for ongoing training and certification preparation. Under Secretary Stanley and Vice Admiral Gortney thoroughly answered all questions regarding the progress of repeal training, and opponents of repeal noticeably struggled to try to get in digs about this inevitable change in policy. Overall, the Department of Defense continues to do an admirable job in deliberately moving forward toward certification and finality on this issue.”

WIlson (R-S.C.) says he was “troubled” by the process that led to #DADT repeal and thought it was rushed through lame duck session

Yeah, the House only voted on repeal twice, in May and December. The Senate only debated repeal three times. That’s a real rush job. But, I think this is my favorite:

Hartzler you have a “double-standard” by not requiring men and women to shower together, but requiring gays to shower with straight troops

Hartzler is Rep. Hartzler (MO) is the sponsor of the resolution on DOMA that’s given us the list of the biggest homophobes in the House. Now, why she puts so much thought into people showering together is intriguing. Clearly, she thinks about it a lot. She’s vying to be the next Marilyn Musgrave.

We’re just seeing more and more evidence that a lot of these House Republicans don’t really care what the American people think. They’re trying to impose their warped, homophobic views on the country.

Guess it’s a good thing we didn’t wait to push the repeal bill in 2011, which was part of the original plan.

Joe Sudbay
On October 27, 2010, Joe was one of five bloggers who interviewed President Obama. Joe is a DC-based political consultant with over twenty-five years of experience at both the state and federal level. Joe has managed political operations and legislative efforts for both candidates and issues-based organizations. For seven years, he was the Director of State Legislation at Handgun Control, Inc. He served as that organization's first Political Director during the 2000 cycle. Joe is a graduate of the University of Maine School of Law. In addition, he has a Masters in Public Administration from Lehigh University and received his B.A. from the University of New Hampshire. Joe also has a fun dog, Petey, a worthy successor to Boomer, who got Joe through eight years of Bush and Cheney. Joe likes to think he is a world class athlete having finished the 2005 Chicago Marathon in the time of 4:10. He has completed six other marathons as well -- and is still determined to break the four hour mark.